HERBIE! Journeys on our narrowboat and the trials and tribulations of maintaining her.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Rain water diverters

I got a comment from Oakie who has a newish, but rather good blog http://nbstronghold.blogspot.com in which he shows us some of his handy boat modifications and some splendid castle painting. Oakie’s boat was built by the same people who built Herbie, in the same year too, so I was a bit surprised that a good feature of Herbie is not on his boat Stronghold.

Here is what I’m talking about.

See those shiny grey things sticking out across the roof from the handrail just forward of the hatch. I guess they might have been added by Roy, Herbie’s previous owner, because he was full of good ideas like that and they are made of hardwood – Roy’s favourite substance. What are they for? Well most narrowboats don’t sit level on the water most of the time, they sit lower at the back, so water on the roof runs towards the back deck. Those sticky outy things on the roof make sure that the rain water goes out through the drain holes just forward of them and doesn’t pour onto the rear deck lockers, which is the problem Oakie seems to have.